Moment of Inertia of grand action parts.

[John Hartman]

Bill Ballard wrote:

> The last thing we need here is 
> for energy to be wasted during the transfer of energy at the collision 
> of hammer and string. 

You made some good points Bill, But I would have to disagree with this 
statement. It seams to me that wasting energy is just what we want the 
hammer to do at all levels of play. At soft levels of play we want it to 
waist a lot of energy to make soft playing more assessable. At very laud 
playing levels we what it to waist much less in order to expand the 
dynamic level. This is achieved by the hammer's non linear compliance. 
 From a tonal point of view we also don't want the hammer to deliver all 
of its energy to the string. It has to have enough energy left to 
rebound from the string.

But I agree with you on the possibility that there may be a relationship 
between the string scale / strike point design and the mass of the hammer.


John Hartman RPT

John Hartman Pianos
[link redacted at request of site owner - Jul 25, 2015]
Rebuilding Steinway and Mason & Hamlin
Grand Pianos Since 1979

Piano Technicians Journal
Journal Illustrator/Contributing Editor
[link redacted at request of site owner - Jul 25, 2015]